


Above the Punch Bowl

by rabidsamfan



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (Downey films)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Drug Use, Gen, Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2013
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 01:44:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6635941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabidsamfan/pseuds/rabidsamfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Holmes doesn't take care of himself, so someone has to. And that isn't always easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Above the Punch Bowl

It isn’t until the ninth day that Watson dares to hope that he has not spent all of his strength for naught, has not chanced everything by burning a hole in his own arm with the cocaine that he has come to loathe for bringing them to this pass. He has stayed alert through the danger hours, midnight after midnight, telling tales unheard to fever-deaf ears as the bells toll one, two, three. The sleep he’s snatched at sunrise has never been enough, the meals he’s scanted haunt him from half-empty plates. He has no belly for food, even now that Holmes is sleeping, though he knows better than to try to live on the stout from the Punch Bowl’s cellars. He takes a celebratory swig even so. The world is starting to feel gentle and welcoming once again, so he puts his head down on the table. He dreams of roses, and of snowfields untouched by the grit of London’s infernal fires. He dreams of Holmes, uncorrupted by the poisons that promise respite from pain, young and pure as Watson has never known him. He dreams of cures that will free his friend. But his old wound wakes him before long. Holmes is awake too, pale and drawn, his dark eyes apologetic. For once he is the first to blink.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was first published at the [Watson's Woes Community on LJ](http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/973598.html) for the July Writing Prompts. The prompt was _Prompt #27:_  
>  Like gold to airy thinness beat: Pick up the book you're currently reading (or the closest one to you). Pick a random page, and find a description or simile. Use that - and be sure to tell us what your original description is, and what's the source.  
> Good luck!>  
> And here is my source:  
> From “The School of Essential Ingredients” by Erica Bauermeister “At the last minute, Margaret’s mother raised the cup of milk away from the pot, and Lillian looked at the sauce, an untouched snowfield, its smell the feeling of quiet at the end of an illness, when the world is starting to feel gentle and welcoming once again.”


End file.
